Mainichi Daily News (Japan) (12/31/22)

The past summer's return of the Fuji Rock Festival was tempered by restrictions to artist bookings and attendance because of the Japanese government's closed-door border control policy, according to organizer Smash Corp. The government basically prohibited new foreign arrivals in response to surging omicron infections soon after the 10-day isolation period for business arrivals was cut to three days in early November. This complicated Smash's negotiations with artists, with one performer declining Fuji Rock because they reportedly could not sing in front of masked people. The country's coronavirus policy also impacted domestic attendee numbers, and Smash Director Tomoaki Ishitobi said the protracted inability to release the artist lineup when tickets went on sale meant that "people didn't get motivated enough to want to stay overnight to go to the festival." Resurgent infections also dampened fans' enthusiasm, and attendance for Fuji Rock 2022 totaled 69,000, far less than annual pre-pandemic levels of more than 100,000. "For us, whether to invest in an event is like capital investment by a company, and it entails big decisions," Ishitobi said. "And yet, the government has continued with wishy-washy measures. Its responses lagged, and there were absolutely no policy measures or guidelines accounting for the future."

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